Research On The Brain Network Mechanism Of Exercise Intervention To Improve The Executive Function Of Deaf-mute Children

Background:Due to loss of hearing and language function,deaf children have a series of behavioral and psychological problems,all of which are related to the executive function(EF)deficit.It is urgent to find effective measures to improve their EF.More and more evidence indicates that exercise can be used as an effective measure to improve their executive function,and its neural basis involves structural and functional changes in the brain.However,the human brain depends not only on the activity of a single brain region,but also on the dynamic interaction of multiple brain regions of integration.Existing research has preliminarily explored the relationship between brain regions,but evidence for the characteristics of brain network mechanisms is still lacking in existing studies.Objective:To investigate the effect of exercise intervention on executive function,structural covariance network(SCN)and functional covariance network(FCN)in deaf children,and further explored the network neural basis of exercise intervention on EF in deaf children.Methods:Twenty eight deaf children,recruited from two special education schools,were randomly assigned into control or exercise group.The exercise group was offered an after-school exercise program at moderate intensity for 30-min,four times per week for 11 weeks.All subjects were subjected to complete a set of EF tasks and brain scans both at baseline and after intervention for detecting changes of EF behavior performance and imaging measurements,based on the voxel-based structural magnetic resonance imaging(sMRI)and functional magnetic resonance imaging(fMRI).We estimated the SCN and the FCN by measuring amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations(ALFF)and gray matter volume(GMV),respectively,and then we conducted graph theoretical analyses.Results:Compared with the no-intervention,the exercise intervention benefitted performance in the EF task,decreased GMV in the right Anterior Cerebellum(Cerebellum;MNI coordinates:51,-55.5,-43.5;73voxels)and Superior temporal gyrus(MNI coordinates:67.5,-25.5.1.5;74voxels),decreased ALFF in Superior frontal gyrus,medial orbital(MNI coordinates:-3,33,-12;349voxels),increased ALFF in Calcarine fissure and surrounding cortex(MNI coordinates:6,-66,12;78voxels)and Angular gyrus/Inferior parietal,but supramarginal and angular gyri(MNI coordinates:48,-51,45;80voxels),better small-worldness both in SCN and FCN.Conclusion:Exercise intervention could improve the behavior performance of EF in deaf children,which the neural basis may be related to not only the GMV and ALFF changes,but also the characteristics of brain network changes both in SCN and FCN.